Lawn sprinklers generally are constructed with some sort of base, a sprinkler head which dispenses water in a desired pattern and one or more conduits through the structure to deliver water to the sprinkler head. The sprinkler is generally designed with a fitting or attachment to a standard garden hose and may be provided with one or more of a wide variety of dispensing heads, some of which are fixed and have numerous openings through which the water can pass and others of which have either rotating or oscillating water dispensers.
In addition to the nature of the sprinkler head, there are two factors which must be taken into consideration when developing a sprinkler. One of those factors is the stability of the structure and the other is its ability to be manually moved across the lawn. For stability, most sprinklers are designed with relatively large bases compared with their height or with legs which are spread apart to provide maximum mechanical stability. Still others are designed with pointed members to pierce the ground, keeping the sprinkler in one place until it is manually extracted.
As to movement, it is desirable under some circumstances to be able to grasp the garden hose at some distance from the sprinkler and simply pull, sliding the sprinkler across the grass to move it from a location which has been adequately watered to a new location. Clearly, the sprinklers which are designed to penetrate the ground cannot be moved in this fashion, requiring that the water be turned off, the sprinkler moved and the water turned on again.
While many sprinklers seem to serve their purposes well, new designs are continually being developed in an effort to improve the sprinklers and also to reduce manufacturing cost and complexity.